"There's a small trading gathering. Would you be interested, fellow Daoist?"
A broker who often loitered around the Gu Household Shop deliberately tried to hook him with those words. In fact, he was one of the shop's lackeys, specializing in making connections and digging pits to bury people in. If he succeeded, he received a small cut; if he failed, he took the fall for his employers and shouldered all the blame. An outsider who had been swindled could hardly stay here forever looking for him. Once things blew over, the Gu Household would pull strings above, and he would carry on with the business.
There were many such people in Xiuzhen trading markets, their interests tangled together in ways no outsider could hope to unravel.
"Don't try to catch me in those snares. Those things I sold before went too cheaply. I asked at other shops afterward, and their prices were all at least thirty percent higher than yours! I'm not coming to the Gu Household Shop again. It's a den of swindlers."
The broker shrugged it off. "Of course they'd say that when you asked. They deliberately raised their prices to compete for business. Once you actually sell them a treasure, you'll find they might not offer even as much as we do. Crows are black the world over. Everyone does business to make money. Raising the price first is just a way to lure you into the jar."
Hou Niao turned to leave. "I'm not going. I'll look at other shops. In a city as big as Linjing, there must be an honest shop somewhere. Why should I hang myself from your one tree?"
How could the broker give up? They had been fattening this little fish for some time, and now the moment had come to